Reasons

Why are some books challenged or banned? The American Library Association recieved 3,736 challenges between the year 2001 and 2008. The top five reasons going to "sexually explicit", "offensive language", "unsuited to age group", "violence", and "homosexuality". Other reasons included "anit-family" and "religious viewpoint". The majority of these challenges came from parents while others came from patrons and administrators. One thing I found very interesting is that books are challenged more for "sexual content" and "offensive language" than for topics like abortion or suicide. What do you think is worse to exspose a child/teen to suicide, homosexuality, different religions, sexual content, or offensive language? I asked three different people with three different up brings how they would place these topics from 1=worse to 5=being ok. Mrs. Smith a 4th grade teacher in this area said that number one would be suicide, followed by sexual content at number two, homosexuality at three, offensive language at forth, and different religions coming in at the best to expose a child or teen to, out of the list above. Next, I asked an electrician. He gave the following list 1)sexual content, 2)homosexuality, 3)suicide, 4)offensive language, and 5)different religions. I also asked a fellow high school student, Ms. Bailey is a junior in high school and said suicide would be worst followed by sexual content, homosexuality, offensive language, and different religions. Offensive language is the second most challenged reason for books but with my little survey all three people with different age, sex, up bringing, thoughts, etc. thought that language is not the biggest thing people should be worrying about with books. Think about how you would answer that question as a student, a teacher, or a parent. Would your answer change if it was your child reading it? Would it make a difference if it was going with what you think is right or wrong? Or would none of this matter? I would really like to know what you think, so please don't be afriad to say what you think!